13.1

This last weekend was a very exciting one for us. It was the first time either of us had ventured over to the island of Macau. It seems ludicrous to have lived in Hong Kong for so long and never have been to Macau, but our reason for going on this particular weekend made the trip even more exciting - The 30th Macau Galaxy Entertainment International Marathon 2011. 

It was a year and a half ago now (the day before we got married) that Derrald ran his first half marathon in Chapel Hill, NC. To say that that race has had a profound effect on his life and fitness philosophy ever since would be an understatement. Although, it has taken him this long to a) recover from his IT band injury b) convince me to sign up for a race with him, somehow, I still can't believe he did it, he managed to get me to commit to running a race with him. Three months ago I was still professing my distaste for all forms of running. I will gladly walk to the end of the earth and back, in fact, Derrald calls these walks that I love "death marches" for they almost kill him but to run for more than 20 minutes? Kill. Me. Now. Still, the powers of persuasion have always been strong with my jedi husband and when the opportunity for a combined race-romantic-weekend-getaway googled it's way into our life, I started thinking, perhaps I can do this. Perhaps this is a challenge, not a form of torture? 

Eight weeks ago I ran five miles. Sure, it was not the first five miles I have ever run but it was the first time in a very very long time and I can count on about three fingers how many times I have run five miles in my life. A week later I set a personal record and ran six miles. Surpassed myself another week later when I ran seven, then eight, nine, and ten miles. In the last two months I have gone from one to thirteen point one.

13.1

I used to see that number tattooed onto car bonnets and plastered across chests in North Carolina and I finally get it. These people have run a half marathon. 

And now, so have I.

Our hotel was perfectly situated just a ten minute walk away from the stadium, where we would be starting and finishing our race. Although the views weren't exactly the views of our dreams... 

...we were comfortable.

Before running the race we had to pick up our bibs, register ourselves and pick up our time chips. Most races have a time "cut off" of three hours for a half marathon i.e. you don't get an official time if you don't complete the race within three hours. The time chips clock your time. The Macau half-marathon has a two and a half hour time cut off. Yikes! I knew I would be able to finish the race, if I had to walk the entire way, I would finish, however, this time cut off presented a whole separate challenge. I wanted an official time.

But first things first, we headed over to the stadium.

This way!

Can you see us?

Waiting in line with my form... nerves are beginning to build as we scope out the "competition" 

Immediately breaking into our "free stuff". Notice that what Derrald is opening turns out to be a portable radio player, arm strap and all *I will explain later why this is significant

Just warming up and getting a little pre-race workout.

Insert Race here.

I don't have pictures of the race itself. We decided against taking the camera although there were plenty of others who not only brought cameras but would stop and pose for photos in the middle of their run! Some of the most memorable parts of the race were -

The Galaxy hotel, sponsors of the race. We ran down the road the bus is on.

A view of the Galaxy from old town part of Taipa.

The Galaxy looks great all lit up at night.

Look at the gap between the buildings on the right of the tree, see the Sky Tower? Yeah...we ran all the way over there.

And to get there we had to run over the bridge on the left hand-side of this picture. Excuse the quality of this photo but it was shot from the back of our taxi driving on our way to the ferry 

The queues for the porta-potty at just two miles out were almost laughable. I wish I could have taken a photo. We ran together for the first 3km and then Derrald ran off into the sunrise (the race started at 6am) and I began my run-walk strategy. I would run for three minutes and walk for one minute, repeating the pattern until the end of the race. I found this method for training and running long distance races when I was doing some research into different ways of training for a marathon. Both Derrald and I were deeply concerned with avoiding injury. I'm pleased to say we were successful! Apart from some sore, tight legs, we're good! I managed to increase my minute mile pace and Derrald's IT band never played up. The only hiccup came at poor Derrald's expense. He'd been having some issues with his ipod headphones meaning that he couldn't change the playlists, couldn't skip songs, couldn't even change the volume. Imagine when thirteen kilometers in  "Harry Potter - Chapter One" in Russian begins to play. He spent 45 minutes running to Harry Potter. In Russian. Garry Potter. Huh-larious. Still we made it, right to the very end.

Inside the stretching area with his medal - doesn't even look like he ran a race does it?

MY medal! I received my official time! And this free towel :) 

Derrald ran the whole thing in his vibrams. There is love here.

In the stadium with our medals.

Happy to be done with other runners still coming in behind me.

It's worth mentioning that the leaders of the marathoners (not the half-marathoners), yeah, the guys that ran the same course we did only twice, they passed me at about 2hrs2minutes when I still had about 3km to go. Incredible. 

After the race we did some touristy things. 

Like rest our legs and take in some sun.

But not too much leg resting! 

Inside the Venetian - Four Seasons.

I couldn't help getting a family Christmas portrait... gathered in front of  the tree in our hotel lobby. 

Merry Christmas Macau! Thanks for having us.